Doomsday Wonderland

When the great swath of green appeared in Lin Sanjiu’s vision, her feet gave way and she half fell onto the ground, next to a bush. She allowed her eyes to travel out far. The forest was vast and empty, and she could hear nothing but the rustling of leaves in the wind. After she ascertained that nobody was coming, her highly-strung nerves finally unraveled.

Sitting next to her, Yu Yuan gasped out his concern. “Are you alright?”

Lin Sanjiu nodded, her breathing shallow and rapid. Even though it had only been two days since she left for the Munitions Factory, she felt as if a year had passed after going through the chain of blood-curdling incidents.

“I don’t understand,” Lin Sanjiu sighed, as she recalled the night where she was ambushed by the combat department from the Munitions Factory. “I went to the Reverie Libretto in search of a clue about the person who wanted me dead. But after getting through so many things, all I got in the end was a b*llshit parasite and nothing else.”

“Somebody is after your life?” Yu Yuan was stunned.

Lin Sanjiu extended her arm out toward Yu Yuan. After he helped her up from the ground, she patted his shoulder and pointed to the front and said, “Let’s talk while walking.”

When both of them walked into the forest, the bushes and the grass susurrated underfoot as if welcoming them back. Suddenly, Yu Yuan stopped. He scanned the surroundings and asked, “Is this the place where you were ambushed?”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

Perhaps he was tickled pink by Lin Sanjiu’s reaction, for Yu Yuan chuckled. He picked up a branch from the ground and gestured around. “You said the fight occurred two days ago, right? Well, look over here. The leaves and branches in this area look broken and torn, and there are fresh traces here and there on the grass, which indicate that somebody had been here not long ago.”

‘The traces could stay for that long?’ 

Lin Sanjiu did not have much experience in outdoor activities. She stared at the grass with a frown and nodded.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I lost a Special Item here,” said Lin Sanjiu as she picked up a stick from the ground. Then, based on her memory of where she last saw the [Cornetto, Freeze The Fun Time], she poked around in the shrubs. After a few seconds, she turned to Yu Yuan and said, “Mind giving me a hand? I could use some of your help.”

“What kind of Special Item is it?” Yu Yuan asked, “How does it look like?”

“A Special Item in the shape of a fallen leaf. Since the situation at the time did not grant me the freedom to retrieve it, I just left it in the forest,” Lin Sanjiu said.

She expected a response from Yu Yuan, but she received none. Feeling strange, she jerked her head back and saw the young man looking at her with a weird expression fixed on his tattoo-covered face. He looked as if he’d heard the most peculiar tale from Lin Sanjiu as he said, “So… you want me to help you look for a leaf? In the forest?”

‘That does sound really unrealistic…’ Lin Sanjiu thought inwardly. She forced herself back to reality and said, “Don’t worry. This forest is not real. It’s just a holographic visual.”

After that, she pulled out the camouflage barrier controller. Even though she trusted Yu Yuan a lot, she did not retract the camouflage barrier entirely. She adjusted the range to about ten meters away from them and then turned the knob.

The trees, the thick layer of leaves on the forest floor, the shrubs, and the bushes began losing their shapes and shrunk back into the ground. A patch of yellow ground then appeared amidst the green. It slowly stretched outward in an ever-widening circular motion like a baldpate of a middle-aged man before finally stopping at the edge of the range set by Lin Sanjiu.

Without the forest getting in their way, it was easier for them to find the [Cornetto, Freeze The Fun Time]. After both of them ferreted around for a while, Yu Yuan suddenly called out to her, “Hey, is this what you’re looking for?”

Lin Sanjiu followed his voice and saw that he was pointing at a leaf-like brownish figure on the ground with a stick.

Just as her eyes lit up and she was about to walk over there to have a closer look, a figure rushed out of the surrounding woods. A dash of red and white flashed across Lin Sanjiu’s eyes, and she realized the person was going for the fallen leaf on the ground as well. Lin Sanjiu was stunned, but she soon regained her consciousness. She reacted swiftly by sending out a gush of Higher Consciousness at the person, knocking her away before she even got the chance to get close to the fallen leaf.

The person fell supine to the ground. The spinning of red and white slowed to a stop and revealed the shape of her umbrella skirt. She looked up and brought her pointy chin, caked thickly in white powder, to the light.

It was Lollipop, or rather, one of the girls that were named Lollipop.

“She is from the Munitions Factory! Yu Yuan, keep an eye on the surroundings! Her comrades might be near!” Lin Sanjiu barked out without turning her head. Then, she kicked the ground hard and bolted almost at the same time as Lollipop.

Nevertheless, Lollipop was a tad bit faster than Lin Sanjiu, as she was closer to the leaf. To prevent her from getting the Special Item, Lin Sanjiu decided to use the same trick again. She amassed her Higher Consciousness around her palm and then unleashed it towards Lollipop. Lollipop lifted her head. The red and white began to spin rapidly again as several streams of air spilled out from the hem of her skirt, forming a wind-like barrier that neutralized Lin Sanjiu’s Higher Consciousness with ease.

Sighing with relief, Lollipop squatted down and reached out for the leaf.

Sweat dripped off Lin Sanjiu’s back when she saw Lollipop about to success. Countless ideas flashed across her mind in that second before she settled upon one. She sent another surge of Higher Consciousness towards the front; however, this time, she wasn’t aiming at Lollipop, but the leaf. Her Higher Consciousness rammed into the leaf before Lollipop could touch it, causing the leaf to flutter away and fall on the ground a few steps away.

“F*ck off!” the girl jerked her head around and shouted. She raised her arm, sending a large shadow directly at Lin Sanjiu, to which the latter guarded against by using her [Defense Forcefield]. By the time Lin Sanjiu regained her footing and was about to dash forward again, Lollipop already picked the leaf up from the ground.

As Lollipop stood up, the shadow scattered and disappeared. Lin Sanjiu wondered what it was, as all it did was just get in her way and did not cause her any damage. ‘Perhaps it’s just a Special Item to intimidate the enemy?’ she thought inwardly.

“Thank you for your Special Item!” Lollipop shouted. It seemed like a weight had been lifted off her mind as she offered Lin Sanjiu a big grin. She turned around and began to run away. “Then, bye-bye! I hope we don’t see each other again!”

However, things would never go so smoothly. No sooner had she darted out at her full speed, than a loud impact sound erupted as if she had banged into something. Blood began to flow out of her nose as she slowly slid down to the ground.

Startled, Lin Sanjiu hastily stopped running forward. She ran her fingers across the air in front of her and realized that some kind of invisible barrier had trapped Lollipop inside. As she looked around, she saw a black-colored lid fly overhead and stop on top of the barrier.

“Thank goodness,” Yu Yuan’s voice rang out from behind her. “Just in time.”

“This barrier is yours?” Lin Sanjiu asked, her voice thick with confusion.

Lin Sanjiu looked into the invisible barrier and realized that more and more things were “growing” out of thin air. A string of light bulbs lit up on the barrier’s cover, followed by several metal poles that stretched from one end to the other inside the glass cabinet. In the end, one after another, plush toys popped out and filled the entire cabinet to the brim. Looking at the cabinet, she felt an inexplicable familiarity, but she couldn’t recall what it was.

“Is this your ability?” She asked.

“No, this is a Special Item. But speaking of which, it does have something to do with my ability,” Yu Yuan replied as he stared into the cabinet.

While he was speaking, a control console protruded from the exterior of the cabinet. When he placed his hand on the joystick, only then was Lin Sanjiu enlightened. To ascertain her conjecture, she raised her head again; through the glass, she saw a metal claw dangling inside of the cabinet.

“Isn’t this the claw crane?”

“…Yeah,” Yu Yuan replied again.

Lin Sanjiu had no idea why, but she felt that Yu Yuan was slightly embarrassed. She turned to look at him, and through the light from the glass cabinet, she could see his face reddening. He did not turn to look at her but pulled out a coin from his pocket. After he inserted the coin into the claw crane, the light bulbs flickered and the machine whirred to life.

“It is a coin-operated machine,” Yu Yuan explained, his voice diminished by the lively music. “So I collect coins whenever I arrive in a world.”

Lin Sanjiu looked at Lollipop, who was sitting on the ground while hugging her head, probably still not have come around from the collision earlier on. After all, she hit herself pretty hard. Then, she turned to Yu Yuan once more, questions forming in her brain, but she did not know which to ask. “So… what are you gonna do about her?”

[Claw Crane]

One of the most popular money-spoofing tools in amusement arcades and casinos. Everything the claw grabs will certainly fall down before it reaches the drop hatch. Players might have a chance of winning if the prizes are plush toys, but if the machine is filled with ice cream, electronic devices, or dollar cash, the claw will suddenly become so weak, it can’t even grab a single thing. 

Right now, the machine is utilized for robbing.

This Special Item is intended to create a dynamic balance between the robber and the victim. The victim trapped inside the case, though they will temporarily become a “plush toy” and thus become incapacitated, it doesn’t mean that they are on the chopping board. To get what they want from the victim, the robber must have excellent doll-catching skills. Asides from that, this machine is coin-operated. Hence, in other words, the robber must insert a coin in order to activate this machine. After that, the robber can control the claw through the joystick to grab the things they want from the victim and move them to the opening.

PS: User is granted five chances for each activation of this Special Item. The claw crane will disappear and free the victim after five chances have been used up. In the circumstance where the victim gets caught again, the user will be given another five chances.

Standing in the clearing, Lin Sanjiu’s ears were assaulted by both the rustling of the leaves and the merry music; her vision was full of kaleidoscopic lights that shone out of the claw crane.

“In other words, you have to take the leaf from her by using the claw?” She asked hesitantly.

Right now, Lollipop was sitting with her back against the glass. She had a mass of bruises on her forehead and half of her face was covered in blood, but she couldn’t wipe it off, as she could not move her arms or any other parts of her body. On top of her palm laid the fallen leaf—[Cornetto, Freeze The Fun Time].

“That’s right,” Yu Yuan sighed. He took a deep breath and gripped the joystick tightly. “Who is this girl?”

“She is the one that ambushed me that night, but I don’t know why she wants my Special Item.”

A muffled noise came from the glass cabinet as soon as Lin Sanjiu finished speaking. Both of them turned to Lollipop and realized she was trying to say something. However, since she had lost control over her own body, all she could manage was some muffled noises. Her eyes bulged, but no one could understand her.

When the claw swayed towards Lollipop, Lin Sanjiu’s heart began to jump faster. “Are you good at this?”

“I got this claw crane at the black market. Wanna take a guess at how much it cost?”

As Yu Yuan spoke, the claw began to descend. Lin Sanjiu pressed herself tightly against the glass cabinet and stared at the claw. The claw gathered up and scratched the girl’s palm. When it was raised, it failed to catch anything.

She watched as the claw returned to its position, disappointment written all over her face. “Just tell me.”

“Fifty Rondo,” Yu Yuan answered. Unlike Lin Sanjiu, he seemed rather calm. Perhaps he was used to the claw’s inability to catch anything?

“That’s a steal!” Lin Sanjiu cried out in surprise. “Why is it so cheap even though it is a Special Item?”

“That’s because nobody can catch anything with it,” he said as he inserted another coin. “Trust me, I am not exaggerating. At the time, I went to this Doomsday Gamification Perennial Exhibition and it was where I found this Special Item. Someone played forty times in a row, but he could not even get a plush toy out of it. So after the exhibition ended, this Special Item was the only thing that did not sell.”

The claw finally grabbed the leaf on its second attempt. However, when the claw began moving towards the drop hatch, Lin Sanjiu saw the leaf flutter down through the gap between the fingers of the claw.

She couldn’t help but sigh. When she saw Yu Yuan inserting the third coin into the machine, she asked, “So why did you buy it?”

“Well, one reason is that I love to play claw crane,” Yu Yuan replied as he controlled the claw through the joystick. After a short while, he thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled out the fourth coin. “I’m the kind of person who always thinks I can get something in my next attempt. Every time I went to the arcade, I spent quite a lot on the claw crane machine.”

In other words, she still had to ready herself for a fight. Lin Sanjiu looked at Lollipop. The girl was staring at the claw. It seemed like she would go after the leaf right after she regained her freedom.

“Of course, for a box of ten-dollar ice cream, I needed more than forty dollars to get it,” Yu Yuan sighed as he took out the fifth coin.

“Is there another reason?” Lin Sanjiu no longer put much hope in the claw crane machine anymore. Her muscles were pulled taut as she readied herself to send a large amount of Higher Consciousness forward when the Special Item disappeared.

“Yes,” Yu Yuan replied, “The ability I developed made me well suited for this kind of Special Item.”

‘Huh?’

Dumbfounded, Lin Sanjiu spun around to look at him. It was then that she saw the claw release the leaf into the drop hatch. Yu Yuan squatted down and took the leaf for her. He laughed, “When it comes to machine, I am naturally more proficient than others.”

The [Cornetto, Freeze The Fun Time] turned back into a card. With a mental tug, it disappeared from Lin Sanjiu’s palm.

The second the claw crane disappeared, Lollipop sprang up from the ground. Both of them took a step back and resumed fighting positions. However, Lollipop did nothing but wipe off the blood on her face with her hand, much to their surprise.

“Why do you want my Special Item?” Lin Sanjiu asked, anger heavy in her tone.

Lollipop’s movement stopped for a moment. She raised her head, face smeared with blood and eyes opened wide in disbelief. Then she shouted, fury laced thick in her voice, “Why? If it weren’t for you trapping us with a check-in pocket dimension, why the hell would I want to snatch your Special Item? We have not checked-in for two days, and because of that, Flame Arm was killed in an accident this morning! This is all your fault! I must get that Special Item today!”

Sensing Yu Yuan’s gaze on her, Lin Sanjiu sighed. “Woe is me.”